Although the agreement by the nation's largest company-level union is usually followed by wage settlements at other carmakers, it may be a bit early to generalise.

Hyundai Motor union tentatively agreed on a 5.1 per cent increase of base pay and other conditions to end a month of partial strikes that cost the nation's largest automaker about 1.3 trillion won (US$1.36 billion) in lost production.

The nation's No.4 carmaker Ssangyong Motor has not even begun the annual wage talks because its union refused to discuss the carmaker's plan to cut almost 1,000 jobs.

The company informed the union twice this month that it plans to reduce idle labor amounting to 986 workers - 782 in production and 204 in administrative staff.

The union also opposes major shareholder Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp.'s appointment of Phillip Murtaugh as one of Ssangyong's chief executives, claiming that the Chinese carmaker put the restructuring expert in charge for mass layoffs.